Egbert avelfoed



(No Model.)

R. WELPORD.

DIEEGT ACTING ENGINE.

,626. Patented Oct. 20, 1885.

N. PETERS. pmwmhngnpxm. wnshmgmn. D. c

UNITED STATES PATENT OrErcEO ROBERT VELFORD, OF HUNTERS HALL, DURHAM ROAD, SUNDERLAND COUNTY OF DURHAM, ENGLAND.

DIRECT-ACTING ENGBNE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 328,626, dated October 20,1885.

Application filed June 11, lili-4. Serial No. 134,596. (No model Patented in .England January 10, 1884, No.1,177.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, ROBERT XVELEoRD, a subject of the Queen of Great Britain and Ireland, residing at Hu nters Hall, Durham Road,

Sunderland, in the county of Durham, Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, have invented new and useful Improvements in Direct-Acting Engines Vorked by Fluid-Pressure, of which the following is a specification.

1o This invention has reference to single-acting and other engines worked by steam or other motive duid, and relates to arranging the distributing-valve (or valves) in such a manner and position that it (or they) travels (or travel) in a direction (or directions) at right angles to the plane (or planes) in which the connecting-rod (or rods) vibrates (or vibrate) and parallel to the axial line of the crank shaft. The valve or valves is or are situated and 2o moves or move on the end or ends of the cylinder or cylinders, which end or ends also forms or form the cylinder face or faces against which the slide valve or valves acts or act; and a result of the arrangement is that a specially-formed exhaust-cavity between the valves face (or valves faces) and cylinder occupying a considerable depth between the cylinder valve-face and the cylinder is dispensed with, and a minimum clearance and length of 3o passage is secured. An exhaust-passage may be conveniently formed communicating with the exhaust-cavity of the slide and passing along the side of the cylinder to any convenient exit; but this passage does not in any way 3 5 necessitate the lengthening of the steam-ports,

as is usual in most arrangements of slidevalves; and in order that others skilled in the art may be enabled to make and use my invention, I proceed to fully describe the same with 4o reference to the accompanying sheet of illustrative drawings, in which- Figure l is a plan or top view of a vertical single-acting engine with the slide-valve chest and slide valve in section, and showing a method 0f actuating the slide-valve by means of an eccentric, (or a crank,) and Fig. 2 is a vertical section of the engine on the line AB, Fig. 1, some of the working parts being shown in elevation. Fig. 3 is an elevation at right 5o angles to Fig. 2. Fig. 4 is a sectional plan or top view drawn to an enlarged scale, showing the slide-valve, the eccentric actuating mechanism, and means for compensating the wear of the parts in contact, and Fig. 5 is a vertical section of the same with adjacent portions of the cylinders. Fig. 6 isa plan or top View showing the position of the ports in the cover at the top of the cylinders.

a is the base-plate of the engine carrying the supports for the cylinders, crank-shaft, plummer-blocks, and other parts. b b are the cylinders. c is the cover of the working ends of the cylinders. Its outer face forms the cylinder Valve face, in which are formed the ports communicating With the cylindersm namely, the two very short ports b b. d d are deep pistons connected by connecting-rods e e to the crank-shaftf. g is a shaft or spindie situated between the cylinders (or outside the cylinderwhen one only is used) and geared with the crank shaft by miter-Wheels h h, for the purpose of actuating the slide or distributing valve i by means of the eccentric kand eccentric -block k. I prefer to actuate the said slide or distributing valve from and in its own exhaust cavity or recess by means of the said eccentric 7p and eccentric-block k', or by means of a crank situated within the exhaustcavity i and worked by a shaft, g, as shown and described, as by this arrangement I dis- 8O pense with stuffing-boxes. Z is a port open to the exhaust cavity t" of the slidevalve t' through the exhaust ports b, Fig. 6, in the cylinder valve face c and passing to the atmosphere, or to a condenser, or to another 8 5 pair of engines, as the case may be. m is the valve chest provided with a supply-inlet, a, for steam or other actuating fluid. il i2 are lining-strips of suitable material, such as phosphor bronze, in the exhaust-cavity of the slide- 9o valve, set up by the set-screws i3, for the purpose of taking up wear of the moving parts.

The action of an engine such as illustrated and described above is as follows: The throws of the cranks being opposite each other, the motion of the one piston will always be the reverse of the motion of the other, and consequently the one slide will serve the two cylinders through the two short ports b b. Thus if the slide i be moved to the right hand steam Ico will be admitted to the port b, and the portl b" will be open to the exhaust-cavity i to allow of the vescape of the exhaust-steam from the right-hand-cylinder, Fig. 2, while steam is being admitted to the left-hand cylinder. The slide valve can be constructed to cut off the steam automatically or otherwise, as re` cylinders and another perform the same office quired.

The example of slide-valve herein shown and described is of the ordinary iat slidevalve type, and may be balanced. Expansionvalves may also be arranged to work in combination with the main valves and be controlled by a governor or by hand. When an engine is made to work onA this principle and required to run at'high speeds, two or more ports may be formed on the cylinder valveface and broughtinto operation for the exhaust of fluid from each cylinder.

Although I have only shown and described my invention as applied to a vertical doublecylinder single-acting engine, itwill be readily understood that it may be applied to doubleacting engines generally-as, for instance, to a horizontal double-acting engine-working either on the compound principle or not.

Commonly for an engine only two cylinders will be used, these being worked by one valve on the high-pressure expansive system, as

making the most useful and simplest arrangement; Vbut in a four-cylinder engine according to my invention, arranged to work on the compound principle, one valve may distribute the actuating uid to the two highpressure for the two low pressure cylinders, it being understood that to this end the exhaust from the pair of high pressure cylinders is to be connected with the valve-chest of the two lowpressure cylinders. The two cylinders may work in pairs onto two cranks or side by side onto four cranks on one common shaft.

What I claim is In an engine worked by fluid pressure, an

ROBERT WELFORD.

Witnesses:

ALFRED R. -SToKoE, Solicitor and Notary Public, Sunderland.

E. ADAMsoN, Clerk to said Mr.` A.'R. Stokoe. 

